Boeing is one employer where workers are still hesitant to come forward with problems despite impact of safety issues on its corporate reputation
Boeing's 737 Max assembly line: the shortcomings in the manufacturer's 737 Max aircraft programme have been hugely damaging to the company. Photograph: Ruth Fremson/New York Timesare still reluctant to speak up about safety problems, even after a door panel on one of its jets recently blew out mid-flight and hundreds of lives were lost in two earlier planes crashes, according to an experts’ report commissioned by the US Federal Aviation Administration.
The door-panel incident on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 flight in January this year was another big blow. A preliminary investigation found the aircraft had left the factory without four bolts that were meant to secure the door panel.Persuading employees to speak up when they see something wrong is crucial if companies are to avoid disaster. But before the two crashes, Boeing workers had reason to believe there was little point in saying anything.
Megan Reitz, an associate fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, says employees often fear raising their concerns, even in organisations with supposedly flat hierarchies and collaborative cultures. Leaders underestimate the challenge of speaking up, Reitz tells me, and even friendly bosses can be unaware that staff do not consider them approachable.
This can be a particular challenge when a company makes significant job cuts like Boeing did as a result of the grounding of the Max and the pandemic.
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